The Twilight Zone: Eye of the Beholder
Jun. 9th, 2026 07:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
krpalmerMaking repeated revisits to a list of Twilight Zone episodes to remind myself of titles that had been just “names in isolation” coming up to them, I was conscious of approaching a different sort of episode, one I did know something about in advance in some part through “cultural osmosis.” As with “Time Enough at Last,” though, at least some of that knowledge of “Eye of the Beholder” amounted to an awareness of certain criticisms along the lines of “Serling thought he was so clever; whatever he did say wasn’t that well-said anyway.” Even if this might have come from fans of written “stories of the fantastic” with their familiar disdain for the potential compromises of trying to reach a wider audience with “visual” stories, it did make things more complicated.
In any case, I suppose I’d surpassed mere “cultural osmosis” over the years. I do recall seeing at some point an adaptation of the episode illustrated with pictures from it, although I don’t think I’d been able to go back to it. I’m also convinced that in advance of that I’d seen the concluding twist given away in the illustrations of a print ad for episodes of the series on videotape. Despite that I was still intrigued now by the arrangements around a woman with her head encased in bandages, waiting for them to be removed and hoping that this latest treatment (distinct from mere “plastic surgery” would make her look normal at last, with the nurses and doctors around her forever in shadow or half-concealed by screens or turned away from the camera or with their heads out of frame. (That, though, might have left me wondering in an odd way about some of the dialogue and what it might have sounded like had I switched from the default “remastered” audio offered on the Blu-Rays to the “original” option.) I also have an impression of Rod Serling arriving for his now-familiar on-camera introduction by emerging from shadow behind a screen himself.
Building the episode up to a half-hour’s running time did involve some explanations I recalled from the adaptation about the possibility of “going somewhere else, to where there are some people in similar states.” Depending on what metaphor is assumed to be invoked, I can understand this provoking indignation. At the same time, I was a bit conscious of a comment or two once seen about mutilated veterans of the First World War winding up living in isolated community, and a half-recollected moment in one of Harry Turtledove’s “alternative histories” where a combat surgeon mutters about “what doesn’t get shown in horror movies because it’d really scare people,” which then leaves me quite aware I’ve got problems of my own to deal with when it comes to “certain ways of exceeding the norm.” After all of that I did start wondering how much room there was to assume the main character didn’t “look like her parents” and recalling a certain period metaphor involving “mutation.”
One thing I hadn’t remembered from the adaptation was how, leading up to the dramatic climax and twist, a “leader” begins a harangue from screens throughout the hospital about enforced uniformity. This could have been anticipated by a doctor being warned to be careful what he’s saying. I was conscious even so that the explanation had an unfortunate unnecessariness to it, that those who suppose they’re being kind can still be weighed down without realising it by the comforts of the privileged or even the vast majority. At the same time, I found myself unwilling to just condemn the episode and move on. One thing I realised I might have taken for granted myself was the unsuccessful treatments being arranged via “the state,” regardless of follow-up thoughts about “efforts over the years to disparage socialized medicine.” I also hadn’t remembered one more character shows up to try and make a somewhat upbeat ending more than a promise. Serling’s closing narration alludes to futures and other places, which keyed into previous thoughts of mine as to whether I could stretch so far as to call this episode “science fiction.” So far as “other times” go, though, I was inclined to note the number of hospital staff shown smoking.
I did notice four commentaries included in the Blu-Ray’s bonus features, and was left wondering when I might ever find the chance to listen to them to complement what little I’ve managed to say here. There was no “radio drama” as has sometimes been the case, though; while I understand every television episode of The Twilight Zone received a radio adaptation not that many years ago, I’m wondering how this particular twist would work.
In any case, I suppose I’d surpassed mere “cultural osmosis” over the years. I do recall seeing at some point an adaptation of the episode illustrated with pictures from it, although I don’t think I’d been able to go back to it. I’m also convinced that in advance of that I’d seen the concluding twist given away in the illustrations of a print ad for episodes of the series on videotape. Despite that I was still intrigued now by the arrangements around a woman with her head encased in bandages, waiting for them to be removed and hoping that this latest treatment (distinct from mere “plastic surgery” would make her look normal at last, with the nurses and doctors around her forever in shadow or half-concealed by screens or turned away from the camera or with their heads out of frame. (That, though, might have left me wondering in an odd way about some of the dialogue and what it might have sounded like had I switched from the default “remastered” audio offered on the Blu-Rays to the “original” option.) I also have an impression of Rod Serling arriving for his now-familiar on-camera introduction by emerging from shadow behind a screen himself.
Building the episode up to a half-hour’s running time did involve some explanations I recalled from the adaptation about the possibility of “going somewhere else, to where there are some people in similar states.” Depending on what metaphor is assumed to be invoked, I can understand this provoking indignation. At the same time, I was a bit conscious of a comment or two once seen about mutilated veterans of the First World War winding up living in isolated community, and a half-recollected moment in one of Harry Turtledove’s “alternative histories” where a combat surgeon mutters about “what doesn’t get shown in horror movies because it’d really scare people,” which then leaves me quite aware I’ve got problems of my own to deal with when it comes to “certain ways of exceeding the norm.” After all of that I did start wondering how much room there was to assume the main character didn’t “look like her parents” and recalling a certain period metaphor involving “mutation.”
One thing I hadn’t remembered from the adaptation was how, leading up to the dramatic climax and twist, a “leader” begins a harangue from screens throughout the hospital about enforced uniformity. This could have been anticipated by a doctor being warned to be careful what he’s saying. I was conscious even so that the explanation had an unfortunate unnecessariness to it, that those who suppose they’re being kind can still be weighed down without realising it by the comforts of the privileged or even the vast majority. At the same time, I found myself unwilling to just condemn the episode and move on. One thing I realised I might have taken for granted myself was the unsuccessful treatments being arranged via “the state,” regardless of follow-up thoughts about “efforts over the years to disparage socialized medicine.” I also hadn’t remembered one more character shows up to try and make a somewhat upbeat ending more than a promise. Serling’s closing narration alludes to futures and other places, which keyed into previous thoughts of mine as to whether I could stretch so far as to call this episode “science fiction.” So far as “other times” go, though, I was inclined to note the number of hospital staff shown smoking.
I did notice four commentaries included in the Blu-Ray’s bonus features, and was left wondering when I might ever find the chance to listen to them to complement what little I’ve managed to say here. There was no “radio drama” as has sometimes been the case, though; while I understand every television episode of The Twilight Zone received a radio adaptation not that many years ago, I’m wondering how this particular twist would work.